FRA AGOSTINO AND THE AMERICAN PAPERS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 12, 12 July 1889, Page 13

FRA AGOSTINO AND THE AMERICAN PAPERS

(New Yoik Freeman's Journal, May 18.) The Tribune ot iast Sunday bad a very entertaining, but, to say the lc ist of it. a rather teu c a'.ional account cf the career of the marvellous Italian preacher, Fra Agos-tino. If the writer be correct, the life of the Franciscan h;is been full enough of incident to furnish plots for a dozen sensational novels. A piince of a long-descended but impoverished line, the hopeless lover of a lady of equal rank, but boundless wealth ; the cruelty ot hor parents, who insist on betrothing their child to a rich old marquis ; the desperation of the rejected swain, who joins the Sicilian lei-ihirts of Garibaldi ; his heroism in numberlebs engagements, in each of which be leceives a severe wound, but does not take to his bed until he is shot through the breast ; his sudden iecovery on healing that the luckless marriage of his inamorata is on the eve cf taking pace ; his journey to Rooie ; his discovery that she has poisoned herself ; bis challenge to his rival ; the duel, in which he severs ihe rival's jugular ; his remorse, and entrance into a Franciscan convent, where he does penance for twenty years, are all depicted with diamalio bkill. But are they true? We would prefer to wait for fun her information. If they are, Fra Agostino would not be the first instance of men who had led reckless and desperate lives, finally dropping their old selves like a cast-off garment, aud risinsr to battle valiantly tor the Church. Tiiu last Bermon ot the lllustiious Franciscan, at the close of the Lenten season, has been rendered memorable by an incident which has been much misrepresented in the cablegrams of the New York Press. It was stated that the orator had tieen summoned to the Vatican and severely reprimanded by his Holiness for invokiog a blessing on King Humbert and tne Italian army. This was simply I another example of those so-called dispatches, by the concoction of I which it is haid to see what is gained, as it only requires a few weeka to detect their unveracity. The tex f of the words supposed to have , given offence to the Vitican are woithy of reproduction for their [ eloquence and pathos :

t v^tT' ?u my ( ' od ' ' B;iid lbe Poacher, « the Church and its Chief, « •«v. ' y - car en Earlh . and may the wishes of that wise Pontiff be graciously heard 1 Bless the Painces of the Church, tbe pastors ( f souls and the clergy. " Bless the fatherland 1 At that word I feel my heart grow neavy. Bless her, my Jesus, and save her from the evils that threaten her,

"Bless him who is the supreme chief (supremo reggitore) and the personification of the fatherland, and bless those who labour with him, that, remembering the law of Christ, they may lead the country to prosperity and greatness. " Bless the young men enrolled under the country's flag, and wno must one day defend it. Bless the people who »re exposed to the seductions of the wicked. Bless the families of this city, and may lny blessing P hed upon them peace and make them one day blessed in heaven ? "

We are told that at the close, the audience, forgetting almost the a"!? v place ' V roke £orth in a PPlause and cheers for Leo XII. Ana the most consoling feature of the scene was that a large proportion of them were ready not many months ago to shout, "Down with the Pope! Down with the Church I " Verily, the finger of God is eeen ia this 1